An Ant

Chapter 11- An Ant

Inside the Black Wind Forest, Su Mu was walking along with Hu Mei'er. Hu Mei'er appeared joyous and within her pair of charming eyes, you could catch glimpses of delight, which made her more attractive when contrasted with her slightly flushed cheeks.

It's been a day since Su Mu accepted the offer to help Xia Ning Chang. Today, he was accompanying Hu Mei'er to collect the Enflamed Yang Stones owned by the Blood Battle Group.

"Brother Su, my older sister asked me to apologize to you about what happened. She would've personally apologized but due to her sudden breakthrough, she couldn't." Hu Mei'er said, slightly embarrassed after remembering how she and Hu Jiao'er woke up in a bed full of their Yin Qi.

"Don't worry about it. And call me by my name." Su Mu replied, making Hu Mei'er smile again.

"Su Mu." Hu Mei'er muttered. "You know, that day when Cheng Shao Feng and Niu Tao appeared, you went and stood in front of me. Perhaps that was a subconscious action, but these past few years, that was the first time someone sincerely and with all their heart wanted to protect me." It was at that moment when Hu Mei'er finally decided to embrace the feeling of love that she felt towards Su Mu.

"What do you mean it was a subconscious action? All I was doing was protecting my woman." Su Mu replied, shocking Hu Mei'er before a smile appeared on her face. Moving a bit forward, she kissed Su Mu on his cheek.

"Right, how long will it take for us to reach that place?" Su Mu asked.

"There is still one hour's worth of walking and although that place can be considered a part of Black Wind Forest, it is closer to the heart of the forest." Hu Mei'er explained. "Over there, there is a vein that our Blood Battle Gang discovered a few years back. We sent over people to protect it and extract ores. The ore's that are extracted from there are quite peculiar."

"How is it peculiar?" Su Mu asked just to keep the conversation going.

"Over there, there are only stones of two attributes. One of them is the stone you bought, the Bright Yang Stone, also known as the Enflamed Yang Stone, while the other is the Bright Yin Stone. If you say it is peculiar, it is not but these two stones mutually suppress each other. So to find them appearing together is quite a mystery."

"That is strange. Maybe it's because of some kind of inheritance?" Su Mu muttered, making Hu Mei'er ponder.

The Bright Yang Stone contained Yang attributed energy while the Bright Yin Stone contained Yin attributed energy, they were opposing attributes. Under normal circumstances, they definitely would not form together.

"Even the Elders in the Sect feel that something isn't quite right with the mining vein, but even after years of investigation, they have yet to find anything out of the ordinary. Though, from this mine, we have earned no small amount of money." Hu Mei'er wasn't treating Su Mu like an outsider. As long as he asked, she would gladly disclose all the secrets of the Blood Battle Group.

Hu Mei'er kept talking for another hour before they arrived at the mining site of the Blood Battle Gang.

It was positioned at the center of Black Wind Forest. An area of roughly ten square kilometers was the size of the Blood Battle Gang's mining area. In the surrounding area, a few houses had been erected to allow the Disciples to rest.

"This place feels awfully familiar." Su Mu said, looking around. He could sense the Bright Yang stones and the Bright Yin stones underground. But the feeling of familiarity was weird for him. Suddenly, Su Mu's eyes slightly widened as the image of two people appeared inside his head. A man and a woman.

After a few seconds, Su Mu chuckled.

"No wonder it felt so familiar." Su Mu muttered, covering his eyes with his right palm. His voice was full of emotions which contained nostalgia, regret, happiness and relief.

"Su Mu, are you alright?" Hu Mei'er asked in a concerned voice, worried about what made Su Mu have such an intense reaction.

It didn't take long for Su Mu to push these thoughts to the back of his head. Removing his hand from his face, Su Mu patted Hu Mei'er's head. "Mei'er, I'm fine."

Seeing the two people entering the mining area, a Blood Battle Gang Disciple took notice of them. Then an old man suddenly dropped down from the sky and landed in front of Su Mu and Hu Mei'er. Cupping his hands, the old man greeted Hu Mei'er. "Young lady!"

"Grandpa Long." Hu Mei'er called out familiarly and pulled on Su Mu to introduce him. "This is our Sect's vice head, Grandfather Long, Long Zai Tian."

"Greetings, Senior Long." Su Mu said, not getting any response from the old man.

Long Zai Tian looked at Su Mu in contempt and didn't pay any regard to him. With his Immortal Ascension Boundary Level in Cultivation, and position as Vice Head of the Blood Battle Gang, was there any need to pay regard to Su Mu's little face?

Not to mention a youngster who relied on a woman! Long Zai Tian especially despised people like Su Mu, and if it wasn't for Hu Mei'er's face, he would have long since slapped Su Mu to death.

Su Mu was well aware of what the old man was thinking, but he wasn't bothered by this. There was simply no point in questioning the way an ant conducted itself.

"Young lady, why did you come to the mining site?" Stroking his long white beard, Long Zai Tian kindly asked her, "It is both dirty and hot here so how is this someplace you can come to. Hurry and return, otherwise, when your father learns of it, he will scold me."

"It wouldn't happen. Daddy wouldn't have the guts to scold you because you are the third most powerful Elder in the Sect, in fact, he only respects you." Hu Mei'er used her spoiled child act, causing Long Zai Tian to become quite joyful.

"Grandpa Long, my friend here wants to purchase some things from some of the Disciples here. Would you allow us to trouble you and enter to find them?" Hu Mei'er asked straightforwardly.

"Enter the mine?" Long Zai Tian's face immediately fell and he went to vigilantly size up Su Mu before asking: "He isn't a Disciple of the Sect right?"

"He is from the High Heaven Pavilion." Hu Mei'er answered. The intimacy between Hu Mei'er and Su Mu was starting to get on Long Zai Tian's nerves.

"Disciples not of the Sect are not allowed to enter!" Long Zai Tian said whilst glaring at Su Mu before blowing out a mouthful of air, clearly displeased. From his tone, it was evident that he despised Su Mu as he spoke. "Even Disciples of the Sect aren't able to freely enter as they wish, let alone you, an outsider."

After he finished saying this, his face became full of pain as he turned around to Hu Mei'er and continued.  "Young lady, how could you bring an outsider to this place? Since you are young, you don't know the ways of people's hearts, you may know a person for a long time but not their true nature. These past years, because of this mine, we have earned quite a lot of money, with many eyes secretly watching us making inquiries, all wanting to exploit any weakness. If this old man did not guard the mine all year round, one couldn't possibly imagine the chaos that might ensue."

Su Mu wasn't really interested in what people thought of him unless the one in question was a beautiful woman. But for an old man like Long Zai Tian, Su Mu couldn't care less if he accidentally ended up peeing on this old geezer's grave. Hell, he will most likely do it again even after realising that.

"Grandpa Long, you misunderstand. He doesn't inquire about anything, but only wants to purchase some things." Hu Mei'er answered again, frowning. She wasn't sure why, but she could tell that Long Zai Tian was trying to badmouth Su Mu.

Long Zai Tian mockingly laughed. "Purchase some things? Did you need to come all the way here to buy things? This excuse is really interesting. Brat, I don't know what your goal is, but get lost from my sight. If you dare to come here again, let's see if this Elder dares to kill you or not."

'Trying to anger me with such petty comments?' Su Mu was trying his best to not laugh.

"Coward!" As Long Zai Tian saw Su Mu's reactions, he despised him even more.

"It was never about my bravery, to begin with." Su Mu replied, shaking his head with a calm expression.

"Then what is it about?" Long Zai Tian laughed, he never expected Su Mu to talk back to him.

'A technique to restrict my movements? And the guy who has been watching from behind. So that's how it is. No matter which world you're in, beautiful women always lead to conflict.' Su Mu thought as he noticed the technique used by Long Zai Tian. At this moment, Su Mu was sure that Long Zai Tian would try to kill him no matter what he says, but Su Mu wasn't scared. Not to mention that Long Zai Tian was doing it without even inquiring about what Su Mu's name was, which made him guess that the old man was getting desperate.

Looking at the circumstances, Su Mu sighed. "You can go ahead and laugh all you want. It's just that when you aim high, you sometimes come across fights not worth fighting. Tell me, if I were to question every ant I come across, how am I supposed to live my life in peace?"

If Su Mu wished to, he had more than five different ways of killing Long Zai Tian within a minute. But for the current him, it'll take a considerable amount of effort and trickery, possibly even serious injuries, not to mention that there were zero gains from this little encounter. Hu Mei'er was already his, so trying to further impress her would be pointless. Impressing a woman is one thing while taking a loss is another.

"Impudence! You dare to call this old master an ant?" Long Zai Tian shouted.

Once he finished, without any reason or regard to power Seniority, a palm was sent out towards Su Mu.

Su Mu waited until the palm was close enough before stepping towards his right, neatly avoiding the palm.

Long Zai Tian causally smashed down his palm; he thought that he would definitely have hit that High Heaven Pavilion Disciple with his palm. Contrary to his predictions, the opposite party had actually dodged!

Only then did Hu Mei Er regain her senses, she quickly rushed in front of Su Mu while she glared at Long Zai Tian, hissing out. "Grandpa Long, he is my friend! What are you trying to do?"

Seeing Hu Mei'er discard her own life to save Su Mu's life, Long Zai Tian frowned again.

"Do you even realise who he is? Su Mu is the grandson of the Second Elder of the High Heaven Pavilion. If you do anything to him, the High Heaven Pavilion won't ignore this." Hu Mei'er said with a firm expression.

"What?" Long Zai Tian exclaimed.

The reason he was so direct in killing any guy who was close to Hu Mei'er was for his grandson, Long Hui, to have a chance in courting her. If his younger grandson could get Hu Mei'er while his older one gets Hu Jiao'er, he will be able to take over the Blood Battle Gang. But it was indeed true that he can't kill Su Mu in broad daylight.

'Their relationship has advanced too much. Even if he is the grandson of the Second Elder, I'll ask Long Hui to deal with him. With his strength, dealing with him in secret shouldn't be difficult.'

"This Elder admits his mistakes, and asks for the forgiveness of the young lady." Long Zai Tian replied.

"Apologize to him, not me." Hu Mei'er said, turning towards Su Mu.

After a few minutes of silence, Long Zai Tian finally spoke. "It was my mistake."

Su Mu just smiled at him. "As I said earlier, I don't care about what an ant does in its miserable life. As for the attack earlier, I'm sure a child's punch would hurt more."

"You damn brat." Long Zai Tian growled but didn't say anything more before taking his leave.

After getting the Bright Yang Stones he needed, Su Mu left along with Hu Mei'er. On his way, he also inquired about Long Zai Tian's two grandsons from Hu Mei'er. He was sure that he'll be seeing them soon enough.

Before leaving, Su Mu had told Hu Mei'er about the place where the 'treasure' related to the Blood Battle Group's mine was, which made Hu Mei'er tear up a bit. Su Mu was willing to tell her something so important just like that?